Method and analysis for the upscaling of structural data

• We use spherical statistics to determine averages of orientation data.
• The use of statistical distributions to determine outliers in field orientation data.
• Self-organizing maps are used to determine related metrics of a geological model.
• Data is upscaled to observe the dominant trends at different scales.

3D geological models are created to integrate a set of input measurements into a single geological model. There are many problems with this approach, as there is uncertainty in all stages of the modelling process, from initial data collection to the approach used in the modelling scheme itself to calculate the geological model. This study looks at the uncertainty inherent in geological models due to data density and introduces a novel method to upscale geological data that optimises the information in the initial dataset. This method also provides the ability for the dominant trend of a geological dataset to be determined at different scales. By using self-organizing maps (SOM's) to examine the different metrics used to quantify a geological model, we allow for a larger range of metrics to be used compared to traditional statistical methods, due to the SOM's ability to deal with incomplete datasets. The classification of the models into clusters based on the geological metrics using k-means clustering provides a useful insight into the models that are most similar and models that are statistical outliers. Our approach is guided and can be calculated on any input dataset of this type to determine the effect that data density will have on a resultant model. These models are all statistical derivations that represent simplifications and different scales of the initial dataset and can be used to interrogate the scale of observations.